Shito Teito Zero: Mercer The God King
by The Clown King Of Chaos
Summary: MBI has unleashed the Blacklight virus into the city. Alex Mercer is fully aware of it, but decides to stick to his agenda of recreating the world, and only one living being can even hope to stop him. Alternate plot of Merciless And Infectious.
1. Rabid Wolves

**A/N:** This is both a somewhat short chapter and a recap of what's happened so far up to the point in time this version of the story begins, which would be right at the end of chapter six of Merciless And Infectious.

**XXXXXX**

Alex Mercer, on the run from Red Crown and Blackwatch, travels to Japan to try and get them off his trail. After hijacking an MBI helicopter, he realizes that he doesn't speak Japanese. His hijacking of the chopper catches the attention of Minaka and Takami, the former being convinced that Mercer is a 'Rogue Sekirei' while Takami finds out as much about Project Zeus as she can. After ditching the chopper, Alex meets Karasuba, and deals with her without killing her. Later on, he encounters the rest of the Discipline Squad, and nearly slices Benitsubasa in half and amputates one of Haihane's arms. After they run away, Mercer meets Tsukiumi, and attempts to consume her, but the energy and visions she gives him forces him to pull back after not even a second of feeding. In the spilt second, he learns all about Sekirei.

Minaka then decides to allow Mercer to be an asset in the Sekirei Plan, and sends a text to every Ashikabi telling them that he possesses an incredible amount of power and can take down the strongest of the Sekirei.

Mikogami instantly takes advantage of this, and makes the stupid mistake of trying to force Mercer to be his newest toy. Mercer doesn't take this well, and almost kills Mikogami, only to be interrupted by Akitsu, whom he proceeds to chase throughout the city. He eventually murders and consumes her right in front of Minato, an injured Tsukiumi, Musubi, and Kusano. With The Ice Sekirei now within him, Mercer gains an incredible amount of power, learns EVERYTHING there is to know about the Sekirei Plan, and can also use her ice powers, though he mostly chooses not to.

Tsukiumi tries to teach him a lesson by slicing him to bits with her water blade, only to be stopped by him with extreme ease.

Mercer then mocks Minato's concern for Sekirei by taking the form of Akitsu and claiming that she wanted to die anyway. He then beats Musubi to within an inch of her life. His sense of humanity returns to him when he sees Kusano crying in the fear that he intends to kill her. He leaves without harming anyone any further.

Ninety-six hours later, Tsukiumi reveals to Minato that she is constantly pushing herself to the limit with training because she intends to go looking for Mercer.

Alex infiltrates MBI tower in the dead of night, and tears apart Takami's office while looking for any information he can to help him out on his plan. Takami catches him red-handed, and he finds out that he both met and had the opportunity to kill both of her children. They then make a deal to help each other: she gives him an abandoned hospital to serve as his home and base, and in return he promises not to harm Minato and Yukari.

The next morning, Mercer uses the guise of Akitsu to get close to Mikogami and Mutsu. The Sekirei sees through Mercer's trick. The two fight to the end, and after wearing Mutsu down with a Devastator, Mercer consumes him and becomes even MORE powerful.

Uzume, on Higa's orders, tries to persuade Alex to join sides with the Ashikabi of the East. When he refuses, she foolishly attempts to kill him.

The only reason Mercer doesn't kill her is because Kazehana, a Sekirei who is actually on Mercer's hit-list, intervenes.

When she tries to seduce Alex, Kazehana feels firsthand what being consumed is like when he grabs her arm for a second before she separates the two of them.

The Wind Sekirei runs off to Izumo Inn, and Alex gives chase only to be stopped by Uzume almost instantly. The Veil Sekirei begs for his help, and he reluctantly agrees to assist her. After meeting Kakizaki and Chiho, Mercer interrogates and then consumes Higa's secretary. Alex then proceeds to pay Higa a visit, and winds up consuming Oriha, and then consumes Higa as well, but only after tearing him in half.

After using the guise of Higa to get Chiho the best treatment possible, Mercer is thanked and embraced by Uzume. He doesn't find it comforting at all. He then takes off and follows Karasuba back to Izumo Inn. While the Black Sekirei and Miya prepare to slash at each other, Mercer takes the opportunity to sneak into the Inn unnoticed. After slowly making his way upstairs, he accidentally discovers Matsu's hidden room. He prepares to kill and consume her, but is distracted by his inexplainable subconscious need to have possession of her stolen jinki, which he promptly takes and doesn't bring any harm to the Shameless Sekirei.

While marveling at his diamond shaped prize while still inside the Inn, Mercer hears a peculiar noise, and looks out the window to see an airborne version of the Blacklight Virus.

And that brings us to the beginning of the story.

**XXXXXX**

Alex watched the bright red mist slowly spread, and then dissipate. He knew that the Blacklight virus was officially loose in the city. Soon, people would become either walking corpses or Evolved Infected.

"Looks like things are about to get even more interesting," he said to himself. He checked to make sure his prize was still in his hands, and then walked back downstairs without bothering to be quiet anymore since he had no intentions of sticking around any longer. He had to get back to his base, put his gem in a safe place, and then get some explosives and guns so that annoying infected civilians didn't barge into his hospital. As he made his way through the open rooms, he stopped for a second, and looked over to see Miya looking at him with a somewhat disturbing smile.

"I see that you are intruding in my home," she said as a demonic mask materialized behind her.

Mercer looked at the mask, and didn't feel afraid at all. "Hmm, cute," he said. With his gem in his left hand, he formed his right hand into his deadly Blade.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Miya asked him. She unsheathed her sword.

"Of course," Alex said in a confident voice. "The God King and the Death Goddess, Mano A Mano. Well, in my case, anyway."

Miya fought to hide her shock that he knew who and what she was. "How do you know who I am?"

He grinned at her, and changed his appearance into that of Mutsu. "Your old friend told me." He changed back into himself.

"What do you want?" Miya asked. She felt threatened that the man, if that is what he was, before her knew everything Mutsu knew, and he had seen and heard a lot.

"I want to see what you've seen," he dead panned.

Miya put herself in a defensive stance. "Would you like to test your luck?"

"No. I plan on the two of us having a final showdown after the virus has torn this city to pieces, and the humans turn on each other like rabid wolves."

"What makes you so sure that last part will happen?"

The two most powerful beings on Earth were so engulfed in their conversation that neither of them had noticed that everyone else in the Inn save Kusano had been awoken by their voices, and were watching and listening in the dark. None of them dared approach Mercer when his Blade was ready to cut their bones like kite-string.

"Because I've seen this before," Mercer answered. "Once people become basically zombies, and the Evolved start coming around, these people will eat each other. Best friends will point guns at each other's heads. Parents will kill anyone who gets close to their young ones. Children will cry over their parents' corpses. Everyone's sense of rationality will shatter like glass. They will beat each other to death with their bare hands when they feel threatened."

"If you've seen this before, what happened?" Miya asked. She was so distraught that she lowered her sword. Alex changed his Bladed arm back to normal. He was telling the truth earlier. He planned to save Miya for last.

"I stopped it from getting out of control and saved an entire city."

"If you stopped this before, why not stop it again?"

"Because it's not MY job to do so every time it happens." He turned to leave. "Besides, you call yourself a goddess, why don't YOU take care of it?" He walked out the door without making another sound.

Miya just stared at the spot he had stood when he revealed the horrific things that happened. The rest of the Inn's residents walked up to her.

"So what do we do now?" Musubi asked anyone who would answer.

"It's obvious!" Tsukiumi said loudly. "We go after him and make him tell us what he did to contain this nightmare to come."

After she finished her proposal on their next move, Minato couldn't help but imagine the streets covered with corpses and mindless cannibals who lived only for eating anyone who wasn't like them and spreading their disease even further. The images in his head then drifted over to Mercer sitting on a throne made completely out of bones which was seated on top of a pile of skeletons and rotting corpses. His nightmarish visions made him faint into Musubi's arms.

Tsukiumi saw this, and instantly lost what little bit of her temper she had left. "JUST BECAUSE WE ARE IN A BAD SITUATION DOESN'T MEAN YOU GET TO HOLD MY HUSBAND!" She then reached over and jerked Minato out of Musubi's gentle grasp, and allowed his head to fall onto her shoulder while she held his mid and lower body close to her.

"I guess it's true; some things never change," Homura said with an amused sigh.


	2. Tartarus

Three weeks later...

**STZ.**

That's what Minaka and MBI had named the section of the city that Mercer usurped from Higa.

Shito Teito Zero.

But the Discipline Squad had another name for it: Tartarus. The three of them found it to be fitting since it was a Greek name for Hell basically, and Mercer was also known by the codename Zeus, name of the Greek King of the Gods, which coincidentally is what Mercer referred to himself as nowadays; the God King.

Tartarus/STZ was like a rotting wound on the city. While most of the Capital was bright and thriving, Tartarus was dark, dreary, and reeked of death in certain parts. The whole place looked like it had gone through a nuclear war. Everything was dark, even the sky seemed to always be a blackish gray, as if a thunder storm was about to break loose. Random fires were always around. They were small, but still noticeable. Something else that made Mercer's world scary was that it felt noticeably colder in it than the rest of the city. What made the place even more like a pit was that a thick dark mist would occasionally cover the streets, and it was always dead quiet.

Right now, Benitsubasa was warily walking down the streets of it, keeping both her eyes and ears open for Mercer. MBI wanted to be posted about the walking disease's actions. They didn't sit well with the fact that he had nonchalantly murdered one of the four most powerful Ashikabi in the entire Sekirei Plan, and then basically said that he now owned a quarter of the city. Since helicopter were a shooting gallery for Mercer, and tanks were much too slow and noticeable, they sent out a member of the Discipline Squad into his realm as often as they could.

Realizing that she would probably never randomly run into Mercer in the streets, she leapt up to the roofs to get a better perspective. For a half hour she jumped around the rooftops, hoping to catch a glimpse of Mercer. She had less than zero luck. Her head was started to become frustrated, and she dropped down back to the streets.

"Oh thank everything Holy." She turned to see an Ashikabi and Sekirei standing on the sidewalk looking relieved. She knew they were so because the girl was carrying a futuristic-looking battle ax and had what appeared to be purple war paint on the right side of her face. "I thought it was Mercer," the Ashikabi said. He then turned to his Sekirei. "Come on. I don't think he's one to give second warnings." She nodded in agreement, and they ran off into the gray mist.

Benitsubasa clenched her fists in anger. She very much wanted to chase after them and beat them into the ground. But she had been given an extremely explicit order: if she harmed anyone at all while in STZ, be it Sekirei, Ashikabi, or even a normal human, MBI would do nothing to help if Mercer found her and got his Claws on her. Sighing irritatedly, she walked off in the opposite direction the pair ran off into. She wasn't surprised to have seen an Ashikabi and Sekirei. While most would think that everyone would get out of STZ as fast as their legs could carry them, several Ashikabi with a single Sekirei took something of a combination of refuge and Stockholm Syndrome in Mercer's home. While eveyone feared Mercer, the Ashikabi who had winged only one Sekirei tried to stay an arm's length away from him, because Mercer DID target Sekirei, but his MO consisted mainly of Ashikabi who had multiple Sekirei around them. He didn't view those with only one as much of a threat, and almost never went after them for a reason nobody but him knew.

After yet another half hour without seeing even a leather jacket, Benitsubasa lost her patience.

"DAMMIT MERCER WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"I've been asking the same for an hour."

Benitsubasa turned around, and instantly put herself into a fighting stance. Standing in front of her was Tsukiumi.

"Should you not THINK before acting? Your shouts may have already grasped his attention," the blonde Sekirei said.

Benitsubasa saw her foe's point, but didn't relax herself at all. "What do you mean?"

"If Mercer is here, which he most probably is, do you not think that the noise of our brawl wouldn't lead him straight to us? And do you not think that he wouldn't pick off the victor with ease?"

"You are very smart my tsundere friend." The two woman turned and saw the man they both had been searching for. "Now I know why you are here, but as for you..." He turned his attention to Benistubasa. "I was expecting Karasuba to come and visit my home today." He then shook his head and began pacing back and forth in front of them. "Anyway, I'm glad that the two of you are here, because I've been wanting to ask you a question."

"And what would that be?" Tsukiumi asked crossing her arms under her ample chest.

"If both of you and all your Ashikabi's Sekirei are still active near the end, who is he going to root for when you have to start killing each other?" They both looked at him blankly. He turned his head to Benitsubasa. "Obviously, YOURS will put his money on Karasuba." He walked off into the dark mist, leaving the two Sekirei to sprint home and ask their Ashikabi the same question.

XXXXXX

Two days later...

"Ah, what a city," Mercer said to himself as he circled high above in one of his military helicopters. "So bright, so productive, so thriving." He then made a face as of he had just tasted something horribly rotten. "So disgusting."

Suddenly, he was flung to the side. It felt like something had been thrown into the chopper. It then happened again a few more times, and Mercer got knocked around the cockpit each time.

"Warning. Warning," the computer system said. "Rotary failure. Control failure. Crash imminent."

"What do you mean 'Crash imminent'?" Mercer yelled. "This is a top of the line..." He stopped talking when he realized he was about to have an argument with a computer. He then began frantically looking out the windows and windshield, looking for the problem. The sensors said that no outside damage was present, so nothing had been thrown at him. "What the Hell could possibly..." He then remembered the time he had encountered Kazehana. He let out a long sigh, sat back in the pilot's chair and crossed his arms. He allowed the helicopter to slowly spiral towards the ground. "I swear, that buxom extraterrestrial bitch is more annoying than Greene AND Taggart!"

XXXXXX

Minato and Kuu were sitting down watching Tsukiumi and Musubi train with Miya. Tsukiumi still pushed herself too hard at times wanting to be powerful enough to take on Mercer.

"Oniichan, why does Tskuiumi try so hard all the time?" Kuu asked.

"She does it because..." Minato struggled to find the right words. Then his phone began to ring. "Hello?"

"Minato! We have a serious problem!" Matsu shrieked.

"Hey Sahashi, can I ask you something?" Minato and Kuu turned around to see who had just called out to him. When they saw an all too familiar leather jacket, Kuu fainted and Minato felt his phone slip out of his hand as cold sweat ran down him. "Which one of them is YUME?"


	3. Mercer's Queen

"How can you be so worried for this... this..." Mercer struggled to find a word to describe the Ashikabi whose neck was under his boot that would be understood by all the people in his audience. None of them dared approach him since he could end their Ashikabi's life by simply forcing his foot towards the ground. "... Lower life-form? Look at us! We are above and better than his kind in every way."

"How can you be so indifferent to who you murder?" Homura shot back.

He gave them all a smile that belonged on a snake. "You're so naïve. His type won't survive."

"Survive what?" Kuu asked as she exposed half her face from behind Miya.

"The coming storm," Mercer replied. "The cataclysm that shall happen in a matter of..."

"Love," Musubi cutted him off.

He froze and slowly turned his head to look at her. "What?" he asked in confusion.

"That is the reason we look out for Minato. It's what fills us with the determination to win and to be with him forever. Haven't you ever loved someone?"

"She's acting like Yume," he whispered to himself so quietly he could barely hear it himself. Instead of answering her, he raised his foot off of Minato's neck, and brought it down with enough force to shatter bone right onto his left shoulder.

"I love pain," he called out over the ronin's cries of agony. Immediately, Musubi and Tsukiumi charged at him. Perfect. He jumped backwards so that he was in the street, and Sprinted off with the two Sekirei in tow. He knew that their only thoughts were on catching him, and they wouldn't even notice where he was leading them.

"You shall pay for that you freak!" Tsukiumi roared at him.

"Only if you manage to actually catch me!" he called back behind him in an entirely mocking tone. Neither of these Sekirei stood a prayer against him. Well, he wasn't positive about Yume.

XXXXXX

Two of Mercer's followers watched as their leader led two of his favorite Sekirei to mess with towards his home. They could tell that they were struggling to keep up, and he was only toying with them. But the followers had a role in this.

"Remember the plan?"

"Of course! Make sure that HE is the only one who makes contact with them and nobody else even sees whichever one he knocks out. We find her and keep her unconscious until he's finished with the other one."

"Why don't we just kill her?"

"Because he'll kill US, you idiot. You know he wants all the single numbers for himself."

"And why is that again?"

"... God you're stupid."

XXXXXX

The trio was in the heart of STZ. Musubi was either unconscious or digging herself out of the wreckage of the building Mercer had made collapse on top of her.

Tsukiumi was fighting with all her might. She had assaulted Mercer with almost everything she had. He just kept taking it. His hands were currently Clawed and the two of them were having a stand off. He was as energetic as ever while Tsukiumi was breathing heavily and swaying slowly. He had to admit silently to himself that he respected her irrepressible will and pride.

"You never quit, do you?" He asked.

"As long as YOU breathe, I will never rest until you are no longer a danger to my husband." She had anger and confidence in her tone. She then moisturized the air around them, and sent a thick stream of water rocketing at him. He effortlessly dodged it and charged at her. By the time he had gotten close, she had fully formed her water blade, and was ready to slash him to bits. He let her attempt to cut him open, and intercepted her Sword.

"Let me know if this hurts when you wake up." He formed his right arm into his Hammerfist, and drew back. He landed a blow on her so hard, she soared through the sides of two buildings before coming to a stop.

"You are going to regret that, you monster!" Mercer turned around to see that Musubi ran at him. But what really caught his attention was the aura of raw power surrounding her, and the huge ghostly bear right behind her. "You will never hurt anyone EVER AGAIN!"

"And what makes you say thAAAAAAAAHHUHH!" For the first time in a VERY long time, Mercer was feeling genuine... pain. And a lot of it. He looked down, and saw that Musubi's arm was going through his abdomen. Thick black ooze was seeping out of him. He looked up and met her in a gaze of confusion. She couldn't fathom how she had done actual damage and had gotten a cry of pain out of the man she thought was unstoppable. He couldn't fathom how she had gotten so close to him, and he hadn't yet sliced her into slurry.

Mercer then dropped his confused look for an angry one, and raised his still Clawed hand in the air. He back-handed her hard enough to go crashing into a car. He dropped down to his hands and knees. He was mouth-breathing heavily and ragged. The sensation he was feeling was one he NEVER wanted to feel again. He focused himself, and made the hole in his stomach regenerate so that it was no more. The effort drained him. He steadied himself up, and made both of his arms Clawed. He then charged back at Musubi. He tried to slash her open, but she was too fast and dodged, but just barely.

"Even at half my strength I can keep you on the rocks," he taunted. She continued to narrowly avoid death, and found an opening in his attacks. She kicked him as hard as she could in the same spot where she had made a gaping hole in him. He went flyng, and crashed right into an abandoned warehouse.

XXXXXX

Mercer's two Sekirei followers looked down at the unconscious Tsukiumi.

"So now what do we do?"

"Simple, we take her to Mercer."

"And why does he want that?"

"His own devices."

XXXXXX

"ARE YOU FUCKING JOKING?!" Mercer circled around a knocked-out Musubi. It had taken much out of him, but he had managed to get her down, and then kneeled over her and punched her as hard as his arms would allow until she almost stopped breathing. After finishing his beatdown, he turned her over onto her back, and checked to see if he had successfully made her Sekirei disappear, just like the Discipline Squad had that night one month ago. He had failed, and his frustration began to pour out of him. "I MURDER AT LEAST TEN OF YOUR KIN, I AMOST MURDER YOU FOR NO REASON! I INVADED YOUR HOME AND STOLE FROM YOU! I ATTEMPT TO MAKE ONE OF YOUR BEST FRIENDS MY EVENING SNACK! WHAT ELSE DO I HAVE TO FUCKING DO TO YOU? MUTILATE THAT WORTHLESS BEING CALLED YOUR ASHIKABI AND AMPUTATE ALL HIS LIMBS?"

He suddenly heard an almost silent moan below him, and looked down to see Musubi struggling to bring herself up to her arms and knees. "Minato..." she to nobody in particular. Mercer raised his right leg, and stomped right on the middle of her back. The strength he delivered made her slam back into the ground. "I am really starting to lose my patience, Yume."

As if he had spoken the Devil's name, a bright light surrounded the body beneath him, and then she forced him away by jolting herself up, and flung him across the wide room of the warehouse. He soared right through a support beam, and the blinding aura surrounding the Sekirei faded. She turned to look at him as he smashed his way out of a collapsed pile of crates with his Claws and glare at her at her murderously.

His venomous stare slowly turned into an excited grin. "Now there's a Light Sekirei."

"You wanted me, Virus? Well here you are. I am Sekirei Number Eight, Yume."

"Do you not think I know that?" He slowly began walking across the huge room towards her, flexing his Clawed fingers.

"I do know that you have been yearning to meet me. But what you DON'T know is that you don't stand a chance."

"And why would that be?"

"You have no love in your heart. You see no need in the affection of others and choose to blot all of them out. You are completely alone by choice."

"When you're one of a kind, you tend to not like others. And besides, once I get my hands on Minaka, all those who go against me will never see the light of another day." By now he was five feet away from Yume. "And that includes you." He leapt at her. She summoned a barrier of light, and deflected him away. As he crashed through another support beam, Yume looked up to the ceiling of the rotting building and came up with a plan.

To say the two of them were formidable to each other was a massive understatement. While Yume had an all new supply of energy and strength of her own, the body that housed her was still badly beaten, even close to broken. And while Mercer was still as powerful as ever, it had been awhile since he had last consumed something and he was fatigued from taking out Tsukiumi and forcing Yume to possess Musubi. With their damage, they were on even ground.

Yume knew that Mercer didn't slow down as a battle went on, so she took advantage of that by blocking all of his attacks with her light barrier, taking in the patterns of his attacks. When she finally found an opening, she charged up a devastating punch, and hit him right below the neck. As he was launched inwards to the center of the building, she sprang herself to the huge hole he had created when she, or to be more accurate Musubi, kicked him with tremendous power.

As he staggered randomly around in a small area, she yelled out to him. "You're digging yourself a steep hole by trying to go at this alone, but first I suggest you dig your way out of THIS first!" She again put an immense amount of power into her fist, and drove it into the ground. As the earth shook and rumbled, she leapt off to look for Minato, though she had a very good idea where he was.

Mercer stumbled for a second astute ground shook beneath him. "Out of this? This what?" He prepared to jump after Yume and give chase, but a loud creaking sound from above him stopped him dead. He looked up towards the ceiling.

"Uh oh," he said in an almost comical voice.

XXXXXX

Two of Mercer's followers watched as the rotting warehouse collapsed on their boss.

"Do you think we should help him?"

Suddenly, a Clawed hand burst out from the top of the rubble pile. "No, I think he's good."

XXXXXX

Minato was resting in a private room in MBI's private hospital. Everyone promised that even though they weren't there, he would be safe, since Mercer had no idea where he would be if he wasn't at the Inn, and they all guaranteed that was where the self-proclaimed God King would go looking.

"Minato?" He slowly opened his eyes to see Musubi. "I've not much time, so I'll get right to the point: Mercer is going after Minaka. You CANNOT let that... monster get his claws on the Game Master. He'll know everything, and truly will be unstoppable. He might even go after the ship." A bright light then filled the room, and Musubi then gave her confused Ashikabi an even more puzzled look.

"Minato? How did I get here? The last thing I remember is..." She widened her eyes and frantically looked around the room.

"Musubi, calm down," Minato said realizing that Yume had once again taken over at a time when she and Mercer were attacking each other. "He's not here, but where's Tsukiumi?"

"Right here, Mr. Sahashi." The two of them turned to the door and saw an MBI soldier holding the Water Sekirei bridal style. "We found two of Mercer's minions carrying her straight to him in STZ. Had to pry her away from them. We couldn't let Mercer optain her power."

Minato wasn't surprised that they hadn't done it out of kindness rather than fear of Mercer growing stronger, but it still disappointed him. "Thank you sir. Could you please set her down?"

"Very well." He removed his arms from beneath Tsukiumi and let her fall roughly to the floor. Minato and Musubi looked down at Tsukiumi in shock and looked back up to see... Alex Mercer. "Before either of you do anything, let me give my word that I don't want to kill any of you. But if anybody outside of this room finds out I'm here, all of you become part of a three course meal for me."

"What do you want?"

"What ever king does." He then got on one knee next to Tsukiumi, and Clawed one of his arms. He then lightly dug it into the Water Sekirei's ribcage. He strained his face, and pumped a highly concentrated but small dose of his personal batch of Blacklight. After about two seconds he pulled his sword-like fingers out of her.

"Wha..." Minato tried to form words while Musubi wrapped herself around his good arm with tears in her eyes. "What did you just do?"

Before Mercer replied, he heard a light moan, and looked down to see Tsukiumi regaining her consciousness. "I did this." He grabbed her arm, and gripped it tightly. Slowly, her limb became black and red and covered in small spikes. Eventually, Tsukiumi had a Clawed arm similar to his own. She looked up at her deformed arm, gasped, and looked over at him with tears in her eyes.

"Why?" she said fighting to hold back her tears.

Mercer stood up and made his way for the door. "Every king needs a queen."

As he walked down the halls, Mercer heard the sobs of Tsukiumi, and considering going back to taste her tears, but decided against it.

"Work comes before pleasure," he said to himself as he walked out of the hospital's main doors.


	4. Ascension

"Our Ascension is at hand, my dear," Mercer said as he yanked on the chain once again, and Tsukiumi fell down onto the ground. The chain was made of pure hardened Blacklight, and one end was wrapped around her neck, and the other end was secure in Mercer's right hand. He tugged on it so that they could look out in the desecrated Capital that layed in ruin together. Half of it was either burnt down, and the other half was on fire or collapsed. Everything, even the sky looked red. She had tried to fight and get away from him, but the chain was as strong as him, and she flat out refused to use the powers he had injected into her to assault him, so Mercer subdued her effortlessly. He yanked on the chain hard, and she wound up having her neck grasped by his free Claw. "All there is to do now is for you to leave behind this weak and mortal body." He plunged his Claw into her and began pumping Blacklight into her. Her screams only motivated him to inject even more into her. Eventually, she turned pitch black, and Mercer began laughing hysterically at her.

XXXXXX

Tsukiumi jolted awake, biting her tongue to hold back the screams she wanted to let out. The nightmare had been haunting her for days. And during those days, she had barricaded, or even exiled, herself into her room. Musubi and Minato brought her food and drinks and would try to talk to or comfort her. She would always order them to go away. She didn't want her friend or her husband to see her. She saw herself as a freak and a monster just like Mercer.

"Now Minato will never wish to be around me," she said to herself with tears.

"That's not true." Tsukiumi spun around and saw Musubi with an assuring smile on her face. "Minato and everybody sees you the same as before, Tsukiumi."

"Musubi, please leave."

"But why?" she asked as she lost her smile. "I'm only trying to help you-"

"I said please LEAVE!" Without thinking, she formed her water blade on her right arm.

Musubi looked down at the weapon and her eyes widened. She ran for the door. "Maybe I was wrong."

As she closed the door behind her, Tsukiumi raised her eyebrows in confusion, and looked down. She almost fainted. Instead of her usual sword, she had formed an entirely water version of Mercer's Claws on her limb. She cried out and furiously shook her arm around, wanting the weapon to go away forever. When it finally did disappear from her body, she broke out into tears again.

XXXXXX

Two of Mercer's followers silently made their way up to the penthouse level of the hotel they were in. The five star company now served as Mercer's base of operations. As the door opened, another one of Mercer's followers ran into the small room as they made their way out.

"I hope you two have good news to give him."

"Why is that, Taki?" one of the duo asked.

"Because he is in a horrible mood." She frantically pressed the button repeatedly until the door finally closed and she descended down to the ground-level floor. Unlike most of Mercer's followers, Taki seemed to try and spend as much time around him as possible.

The two of them looked at each other nervously, and pressed on through the front room towards the God King's private chambers. One of them cautiously knocked on the closed door. Since no bullets had soared through the wall and into them, that meant they could enter, so they did. They slowly made their way into the dimly lit and icy cold room. On the far side of the wall was an enormous map of the city that covered it entirely. The southern and eastern sections of the map were either torn to shreds or burnt. The other half was decorated with small and random X's. In the center was a red circle, presumably to represent MBI Tower.

In the very middle of the room was a brown desk, and next to it was a life-size ice statue of Kazehana. None of his followers had any clue as to why Mercer had made a statue of a woman all of them came to believe he hated with a fiery passion. The ice never thawed at all. None of them could fathom that either.

Sitting in a Victorian era arm chair behind aforementioned desk was Mercer, gazing at the duo as they struggled not to look away in fear, not wanting to appear weak to him. "So where is it?" he asked eying their empty hands.

They chuckled nervously and put their fingers together, and then ducked when the desk came flying at them. They avoided it and it smashed to kindling on the wall behind them. The next thing either of them knew, their leader was standing right in front of them, glaring at them with Hellfire in his eyes.

"I tell you to do one thing," he whispered menacingly to them.

"Yes, but-"

"ONE. SIMPLE. THING," he said through gritted teeth. He then took a deep breath, and appeared to lose some of his fury. He turned his attention to his follower on his right. "Do you remember what I promised I would give you in exchange for your undivided and undying loyalty?"

"Of course. Immortality, and... my arm back."

"Exactly, Haihane." He turned to the other. "Et tu?"

"You said you'd show Natsuo that deep inside, he loves me and that we would be together," she said with lust.

"Precisely, Benitsubasa. But tell me, right now do either of you believe that you actually deserve those?" After a second of thinking, they both gloomily shook their heads. "Nor do I. So tonight, I shall personally oversee your task, and make sure you two idiots get your fucking job done correctly this time."

XXXXXX

"Come on, come ON!" Mercer said without patience. "We have an extremely tight schedule to keep, and our margin for error is slight at best."

"I'm sorry, but this thing is heavy," Taki said as she finally landed next to Mercer. She handed him the rocket launcher. "But why are you making this plan move so fast?"

Merced loaded the weapon, positioned it on his shoulder, and turned around and aimed it at MBI Tower. "We've got a quota to meet, a reputation to keep, and lots of murdering to do."


	5. Not Like Him

Takami was sitting alone in her office in MBI Tower. She was in a tight spot. Mercer hadn't broken the rules of their deal, but he had bent them to just before the point of snapping. She was thinking deeply about what to do when she heard a small boom from the streets outside. The next second, alarms started blaring, the lights in the room began flashing in red, and an MBI soldier ran into her office, and frantically pointed his automatic rifle around the room. After he found nothing of threat, he lowered his weapon and walk over to Takami who was still sitting at her desk.

"Professor Sahashi, we have a code Black!" he said in an extremely worried and anxious voice. MBI had created an entire system of alarms and codes just for situations involving Mercer. Green meant he was inside the portion of the city he now reigned over. Yellow meant he was outside of STZ. Takami insisted on adding an Orange alert for when he ventured into the northern part of the city for reasons only she and Minaka knew. Red was when Mercer was in the center of the city, or around the Tower. Black was for when he actually got INSIDE the Tower. And White was for when he was within killing distance of the Director.

Takami quickly made her way to the door with the soldier. They made their way down the hallways with the soldier in front, checking corners and making sure the coast was clear. After about five minutes of slowly making their way down the many levels, the PA began blaring.

"Alert. Alert. Mercer is inside the lower armory. Proceed with extreme caution. All available troops go enroute for the armory. Discipline Squad, protect the Game Master."

XXXXXX

Mercer was in one of the Tower's weapons room. The vast array of guns intrigued him. He wasn't above using weapons that weren't attached to him. He heard a number of soldiers making their way down to him. He looked around and spotted an extremely lethal military weapon.

XXXXXX

Benitsubasa and Haihane were alone in Minaka's office. Not even a minute ago, the entire Discipline Squad had been rallied up and sent to the Director's office, and the instant Karasuba strolled in with her laid-back grin, Minaka made her go up to the roof and into a helicopter with him and he ordered Benitsubasa and Haihane to stay behind and 'slow down' Mercer. Now the two of them were searching through all the papers in the room, looking for anything that would be of interest or use to their leader. Both of them were extremely relieved because Minaka's choosing to leave and to take Karasuba with him made their task a million times easier, but Benitsubasa was also fuming.

"Slow him down? Did he really tell us to do that?" she complained while still searching. "He basically would have sent us to our graves! You see, this is another reason we sided with Mercer; he looks out for us and gives us what we deserve."

"True. But he also sometimes decides kills the person nearest to him for no reason other than being bored or hungry," Haihane replied.

Benitsubasa was about to shoot something back at her partner, but she suddenly stumbled upon a file that said 'FAILSAFES' on the front. "This looks interesting."

XXXXXX

Mercer emerged from the smoldering hole in the side of the building he had created a few minutes ago with the mini-gun he had grabbed inside the armory and began mowing down the guards in front of him. After a few seconds, he released the triggers and the barrels slowly came to a stop. Admiring his work, he leapt of onto the rooftops still holding his lethal machine.

XXXXXX

Minato and all the others of Maison Izumo sans Tsukiumi were patiently waiting for Minaka to make an announcement since the Ashikabi has recently gotten a text from the Director saying that he was about to do so. Sure enough, the screen flickered on by itself and there was Minaka's insane smile.

"Greetings to all the participants of the-" Before he could go on any further, static covered the screen, and when it was cleared, Mercer filled the screen. Kuu let out a shriek and grabbed onto Minato.

"If you don't know me, I think now is the time for you to," Mercer said. "My name is Alex Mercer."

"How did he even override MBI's signal?" Minato asked Matsu.

"Well, if you count up all the IQs of his victims, he himself would have one of at least five thousand. And one of them was bound to be tech savvy." the Wisdom Sekirei answered. They all turned their attention back to the screen.

"I have something to say to all of you Sekirei and Ashikabi watching. And it is make no mistake. There is a wildfire coming, and it will burn everything clean. And your survival is entirely in your hands. Why? Because I'll personally spread it, but you can evade a painful demise. The choice is completely yours. So here's my proposal: I'm giving all of you five months to make a choice: either give me and the Infinity Reich your eternal loyalty and have a place in the brave, strong new world, or die under our feet. The new world has no room for weak lifeforms and disloyalty. And there is no ultimatum, because MBI has not and never will let up their rule of none of you leaving, so you only have two paths to choose. But choose wisely, because half of this city belongs to me. And there are only three people standing in my way of claiming its entirety. Make up your minds quickly, because you can either come to me or wait for me to find you, but when the clock strikes zero, I shall seek all of you out for your answer, and if you don't have one on the spot... you die." He smirked at the camera, and static again filled the screen. Minato didn't bother leaving it on. He turned his head towards Miya.

"What do we do?" he asked.

She looked back at him with an emotionless face. "I'm afraid I can't answer that for you. You must choose for yourself."

Minato picked himself up and made his way to the door seperating him from Tsukiumi and opened it. The Water Sekirei was sitting in the middle of the floor with her back to him. He wasn't sure if she has noticed him or not.

"Tsukiumi, if you had to chose between fighting Mercer head on or joining him, which would you do?"

She didn't get up or even turn to look at him. "I would go and join him," she said.

Minato was shocked. "Why?!"

"There is no reason not to."

"No reason? There's plenty!"

"Not for me." She rose to a standing position, but still kept her back to him. "I'm already a monster. And now you'll never want to even be around me." She spoke in a small voice and fought back tears. "You're probably scared to death right now for even looking at me. At least Mercer said I was his queen..."

Minato couldn't think of anything to say. He didn't bother trying to look for words since she wouldn't listen. Instead, he grabbed her by her arm, and spun her around and kissed her lovingly. He could feel her tense up, but she relaxed as her wings of light formed on her back. As they parted, her wings faded and he wrapped his arms around her. She rested her head on his shoulder.

"You're not a monster," Minato said to her. "You're nothing like Mercer. All he cares about is growing more powerful. You constantly try to win my attention, and always refer to yourself as my wife. I take that to mean you love me. And I love you just like all my Sekirei. You risk your lives to protect me. My view of you isn't going to change because you can grow claws."

Tsukiumi reveled and savored this moment. Normally her pride would make her push him away in fear of looking weak. But right now they were all alone, and his words had made her feel something positive for the first time in days.

XXXXXX

Kazehana was sitting in one of her favorite spots to be alone in the city, a thousand feet in the air sitting on a steel girder and leaning on a vertical one right next to her. She was up there pondering about the attack Mercer had made on MBI Tower.

"I didn't think that he needed to kill thirty people just to be able blow off steam, plus a random attack really isn't his stlye," she said to herself. She stood up to leave. "I guess I don't really help much by destroying his toys."

"No, but this does." She felt someone grip the side of her head, and she was slammed right into the girder she had been leaning on. The assailant let go of her, and she turned to see who it was. Even though she was seeing double and her head was spinning, she could still make the all too familiar hood and jacket. "And so shall this." He raised his right Claw up to his head and shot it straight at her. She was barely able to duck in time to make Mercer embed his Claw into the beam and she leapt across the gap between the girder they were on and another one. She needed distance to actually do serious damage. Mercer pulled back hard and freed his Claw. He turned to her, and made he right arm into his Whipfist while his left arm remained Clawed.

"You think a gaping hole will protect you from me?" He said. He leapt across the space between them. When he was about halfway across, Kazehana summoned a powerful wind, and sent it at him in an attempt to blow him away like before. But just as the wind started to carry him away, Mercer shot his Whipfist into the girder Kazehana was standing on, and made it pull him towards it. He landed on the beam gracefully about ten feet away form Kazehana, who looked at him with startlment. He smirked at her. "I taught myself a new trick just for you..."


	6. My World

Mercer gripped his ribcage in actual pain. Once again, Kazehana had given him the slip, but only after turning his new strategy against him, and making him ram into several girders. He was now resting on a random rooftop, waiting for the stinging sensation in his midsection to recede.

"You know, for a leader..." He turned around and saw the only member of the Discipline Squad who wasn't on his side yet. "You really don't know when to give up."

"Giving up is for those who have no chance of winning," he shot back. The pain was almost gone. "And I of course have victory in my grasp."

"Not so long as I'm in your way." She grinned at him.

"If you're in my way, why are you behind me?" He turned on his heels and jumped off across the rooftops, knowing full well that the Black Sekirei would give chase. For once, due to the slight pain he had in his stomach and the fierce battle he had just been in, he didn't toy with the Sekirei chasing him; he slightly actually tried to lose her for a minute, but then he got an idea. He turned directions and headed for Tartarus.

Karasuba saw what he was doing, and was amused. "Home field advantage won't save you, Mercer," she shouted out.

"I don't need it to!" he shot back. The pain was finally nonexistent. He sped up and made sure that Karasuba didn't lose him. Finally they arrived at the section of the city where the Capitol met STZ. A semi truck and trailer were blocking the road in and out. Karasuba landed a few yards away from the roadblock and Mercer landed on top of it and looked down to her.

"Welcome to Hell, Karasuba," he said in a rather frightening voice. "Welcome to MY world." He turned around and jumped off the trailer and into his realm. Karasuba stood there for a moment. He had actual scared her for a moment. Nobody could have done that to her. After regaining her wits, she slashed her sword in the air towards the truck. It spilt right in two, forming a small opening for her to stroll through.

Karasuba looked around the wasteland she was walking through. Mercer didn't seem to care at all about he and his army lived.

"Now this one over here..." She turned around in surprise to see Mercer casually leaning against a wall of a building. "Was born a monster." Suddenly, a Hunter burst through the wall and ran towards Karasuba. The Black Sekirei lifted her sword up, and sliced the Evolved cleanly in half as it tried to pounce her. Its blood covered her face.

Mercer didn't look surprised. "Hunters aren't the most bright Evolved, nor the strongest." He walked away while Karasuba wiped the blood of her eyes so she could see again. When her vision fully returned she again tracked Mercer through his home.

She caught sight of him walking down one of the desolated streets. She brought up her sword, and ran to him. Before he could react, she had buried her sword in his midsection up to the hilt. Before she could damage him any further, he flexed his shoulders and thrusted his elbows backwards, and she and her sword went flying right through a wall.

"Is that the best you can do?" he asked dryly and walked away again. She angrily picked herself up and brushed the rubble off of herself before running after him.

After aimlessly sprinting around for ten minutes she spotted him again. She ran towards his back with lightning speed, and raised her nodachi above her head, ready to slice him in half. Just as she was about to do so, he formed his Blade on his arm, turned around, and angled his weaponized arm so that her sword struck it at an angle and slid down it. With an opening, Mercer delivered a nasty kick to her side and sent her scraping her body on the street until she finally came to a stop. He leapt over to her nearly broken body.

"I'm going to give you a choice. Either join me and my cause, or die at this spot."

"That all depends," Karasuba struggled to say. "What's your big plan?"

"To burn this world clean, and give humanity a second chance."

"Yara, sounds like fun. What exactly are you going to do?"

"I plan to find out how MBI is so rapidly developing Blacklight, and then take out Minaka to learn literally everything. Then, my army and I shall spread the Blacklight to everybody. Some will die, some will be nothing more than walking corpses, some will become Evolved, and the others shall... well, be like me. And after that, we shall consume all those who were turned into Evolved and shall become even MORE powerful. And with that complete, the world will be free from sickness, weakness, vulnerability, and disease. No more nonsense wars or fighting. These humans only know violence and how to blame others for their wrong-doings. They're filthy insects that deserve to be stepped on."

"So basically, you're either going to kill everyone, or make them nearly unstoppable."

"That is my plan, yes," he dead panned.

Karasuba slowly picked herself up into a standing position. She regained her hollow grin. "I'm in."


	7. The Black Queen

Seeing as he had broken nearly half the bones in her body, Mercer reluctantly carried Karasuba bridal style all the way across Hell to his base. As he made his way up to his private level, some of his followers were scattered about all over the former hotel. Most of them were both frightened and shocked to see the Black Sekirei within their home. When he finally arrived at the top floor, he carried Karasuba over to an overstuffed leather sofa, and dropped her into it.

"Since waiting for your body to completely mend will take far too long, I'm going to treat you myself."

"Yara, what are you, a doctor?" Karasuba grinned up at him.

"Scientist," he said flatly. He made his Claws cover his right arm. "Now hold still, and if you feel the need to scream, please do." He rammed his Claw into her left shoulder blade and injected a fair amount of Blacklight into her. She didn't scream, but her face did get strained for a minute. After he removed himself from her, he instantly saw that she was feeling better. He grabbed her right hand and pulled her up to a standing position. At first she swayed slightly, but after a few moments, she remained steady. "How do you feel?"

"Dangerous." she said breathlessly with a grin.

"Excellent. I need my queens to be as powerful as they can."

"QueenS? Plural?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, plural. You make two. A King needs to have a comforting life, and nothing is more likable to me than dangerous and deadly warriors surrounding me and following me. The fact that even though I'm a sentient virus, my preference for company is still women helps that."

"I think I can guess who you plan to make three." She looked over to the ice statue of her former teammate that was in the center of the room.

Before Mercer could respond, the phone he long ago taken from his follower Mikogami started ringing. He saw that Minaka had sent him, and all the Ashikabi a message which read to himself. He put the phone back into his jacket pocket.

"What exactly does Phase Two mean?" he asked.

"There are only ten Sekirei that are still unwinged." Karasuba told him.

"Any idea which ones?" Mercer had always pondered on the thought of him being able to wing a Sekirei of his own. He wasn't sure, but if he couldn't, then nothing negative would happen to either of them.

"I'm not sure about all of them," she said playfully. "But I do know that the real version of that statue of yours is still alone."

Mercer was pleased by this information. He made his way to the door. "Come if you wish. I have business to attend to." She followed him.

Just as he was about to send the elevator up for them, the door opened and two of his followers stepped out of it.

"We heard that Karasuba was chasing you and-" Benitsubasa and Haihane froze in place when they saw their other commander grinning at them.

"So you two were with him all along. I'm not surprised."

"Now that all three of you are here," Alex started as he again formed his Claws on both hands. "You two are being promoted." Without warning he drove one Claw into Benitsubasa and the other into Haihane. Unlike Karasuba they screamed as Mercer infected them.

XXXXXX

Takami was quietly sitting in her office in MBI Tower when the door literally flew off its hinges and slid to right in front of her bureau. She calmly looked up to see Mercer walking towards her. "How did you get in here?"

"Where is Number Three?" he asked ignoring her question completely.

"I'm sorry, what?" Takami couldn't understand what he wanted.

Mercer rested his hands on her desk and tensed up his arms so they supported his weight as he leaned forward. "I am demanding to know where Number Three, Kazehana, the Wind Sekirei, your rival, and Minaka's whore, is." He grabbed one end of the desk, and threw it sideways. It smashed to pieces when it collided with the wall. "And don't even think about lying to me. I've got friends you can't imagine."

"I honestly don't know," she truthfully answered. She believed him about the last part. How else could he have waltzed into the Tower and blown her door away. "The only person she makes regular contact with is Miya."

"Really?" Mercer said with a grin. At that moment, he devised a simple but brilliant plan to get what he wanted.

XXXXXX

It was the dead of night and Miya couldn't bring herself to fall asleep. She had an unnerving feeling that something bad would happen that silent and starless night. She lifted herself out of her bed careful not to wake Kuu up, and left her room to check and make sure all her boarders were safe. Before she had even reached the stairs, she heard an all too familiar sound: the sharpening of a sword. She almost ran to the backyard, and saw Karasuba standing right there, running a stone along her nodachi as she grinned creepily at her. Miya was glad she had subconsciously grabbed her sword, which she immediately unsheathed.

"Yara, Mi-chan, I'm not here to start anything." She tossed aside the stone and carefully observed her weapon as she continued talking. "I'm just here to tell you something. My husband wants you for himself, but I'm not sure I can promise him that."

"Husband?" Miya asked in confusion. She couldn't fathom why ANYONE would fall in love with, or even have a positive view of Karasuba. The Black Sekirei gave her a hollow grin and black tendrils slowly began to sprout out of her chest and back. Miya's eyes widened and she realized who Karasuba was talking about when she said 'husband' earlier. "Karasuba... what has he done to you?"

"Alex has made me more powerful than ever. Now I know I can kill you." The tendrils receded back into her.

"What else should I expect from one who calls herself the Black Sekirei?"

"No... I am above all Sekirei now. So why should I continue going with a title that only demeans me? You can call me... the Black Queen." She sheathed her sword and leapt of into the starless night.

"Just because he calls you his queen doesn't mean he sees you as a wife," Miya murmured as she walked back into the house and sheathed her own sword.

"I don't know. I think I might like her." Miya twisted her body in shock to see Mercer standing at the front door with his back at her. "Sadistic. Bloodthirsty. A complete sociopath."

"What are you doing here?" Miya demanded.

"I want you to tell me where Kazehana is. I feel a yearning to see her again." He was talking in an unusually quiet voice.

"Unlike you, I never betray my friends."

"I don't betray them. That would imply that I allow some of them to live."

Miya prepared to draw her sword, but was stopped by Mercer's amused sigh.

"Alright then. I was actually hoping for this to happen. Now the two of us shall see firsthand what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object."

"What are you rambling about?" Miya wasn't in the mood for one of Mercer's mind games.

Mercer let out another amused sigh, and turned to face Miya. She fought with all her will to not charge at him and try to obliterate him.


	8. What He's Really After

Kuu slowly stirred awake. For some strange reason, even though she was under a heavy blanket and still had her green dress on, she still felt a chill all about her body. She yawned and opened her eyes. She was surprised to see that she wasn't in Miya's room, but a rather empty one. The bed she was in was very big, and extremely comfortable. The morning sun was just shining in through the window on the wall, so she could see what else was in this strange and unfamiliar place. On the wall opposite of her was a big television sitting on top of an old looking and large wooden dresser. Next to the large bed was a night stand with a lamp on top of it. There were two doors that led out of the room. One was open and contained a luxurious looking bathroom. The other one was closed, and she suddenly heard a leveled but obviously aggravated voice on the other side of it.

"Alright, which one of you fucked up this time?"

She slowly pushed the heavy blanket off of her and crept toward the door, thinking that whoever was in the other room could tell her where she was. But then she considered the fact that she was living in a Game where everybody who was a part of it wanted all the others dead. She grabbed the gilded doorknob and quietly made the door open a couple inches, not wanting to draw any attention to her. Her small line of vision allowed her to see what she could tell were about two dozen Sekirei judging by the way they were dressed and the weapons some of them were carrying. Along with them were about six or seven Ashikabi. What really caught her attention was two things; among the throng of Sekirei and Ashikabi were the two members of the Discipline Squad Musubi had tossed far into the distance that night they helped their two friends escape from the city on the bridge. But what was even more disturbing to Kuu was that, along with all the other people, the two of them looked scared halfway to death.

"I'll ask again," the same voice from earlier told them all. "Which. One. Of. You. Fucked. Up?" The source of the voice walked over into the narrow space Kuu could see into, and she instantly understood why all of them, including the Discipline Squad, were shaking like leaves and sweating icy bullets.

XXXXXX

Miya had been visioisly slashing at the air with her real sword ever since Mercer had walked out of her home earlier in the night. She now wanted nothing more than to slice the arrogant self-implied God King to little pieces. As she was about to slash again, she felt like someone was staring at her. She froze and turned her head to see that almost all the people living with her were looking at her in awe; the only one not among them was Tsukiumi. Even though her 'husband' had openly assured her that he didn't care that she now had Blacklight inside of her and that he still loved her, she still somewhat loathed herself whenever Minato wasn't around her to comfort and hold her. It was easy to tell why they were frozen as they gazed upon their landlady. She had a very deadly aura about her, she was radiating rage, and she looked actually angry with her teeth bared. Another thing that was obvious was that something was wrong.

"Miya," Minato carefully said. "What happened?"

She looked at all of them standing completely still, waiting for his answer. Miya took in a very deep breath, and somewhat relaxed her visage. There was no point in keeping them in dark; they would find out on their own in about ten minutes, and were almost guaranteed to make an awful mistake.

"We have three very big problems." she explained as she walked up to them. She left her sword in her hand. "Karasuba has joined sides with Mercer." They all gasped out in horror. Musubi and Matsu clung to their Ashikabi in fear. Homura just lost himself to the images of Karasuba and Mercer walking through the city as they destroyed everything in their path with indifference to who they harmed and the joy of making everything around them burn. Uzume just looked lost and confused.

"The other problem is that he has done to her what he did to Tsukiumi." Miya continued. This statement brought about looks of nothing but terror on everyone's face except Uzume.

"Why is that a bad thing?" she asked. Everyone looked at her with shock. She looked at all of them with puzzlement. "Wouldn't that mean that Karasuba will leave us alone?"

"Uzume, when was the last time you saw Mercer?" Miya asked.

"I haven't even heard from him since he helped my Ashikabi. Why?"

"Oh dear..." Miya then realized that she should have guessed that Uzume probably hadn't seen Mercer at the Inn since she spent the majority of her time at the hospital with Chiho. She let out a very long sigh. "Uzume, there are several things you need to know right now. But first, the final issue at hand. Before I tell all of you, I need each and every one of you to promise that you will stand completely still, and not set foot outside the Inn, because if you do, I will personally go out and catch you and then drag you back here by any means necessary."

They all looked confused by the strange demand, but they all agreed to her terms.

She took in a very long and deep breath. "Mercer..." Despite her self-preparation she still struggled to form coherent words. "Mercer... Mercer... has Kuu."

They're reactions were very different. Minato had a look that said he had just watched somebody die right before his eyes. Musubi was on the verge of tears as she held onto Minato a little tighter. Matsu held onto Minato more as well, but she had a look of nervousness like she thought Mercer would come after her next. Homura looked like he was ready to commit murder. Uzume's mouth dropped open as her legs quivered. She was also on the verge of tears.

"Why?" the Veil Sekirei asked anyone would give her any sort of answer.

"Yeah, why would he want Kuu?" Homura asked.

"It's not Kuu in particular. Who he's really after is Kazehana." Miya explained to all of them. "He didn't say exactly why, but he made it very clear."

"And now..." Minato started staring off towards Mercer's turf, which was now universally called Hell by the participants in the Sekirei Plan. "She's out there with him... with that killer..."

XXXXXX

Kuu continued looking on as Mercer and now Karasuba, who was on his side opposite everyone else, walked slowly down the row of his followers and then turned on his heels and walked down it again as he spoke. She was too frightened to do anything else.

"So nobody knows what happened?" He said in a calm and collected voice. Even though his voice didn't sound it, he was extremely angry with the work his small army had done. Every time he passed in front of one of them, they would tense up in pure terror, thinking that he would take his frustration out on them. Karasuba didn't seem threatened or even on edge at all. She actually seemed to like the heaviness of the atmosphere.

"She... she got away, Sir." One of the Sekirei nervously said. She had on a white and blue shirt and matching skirt. Behind her she was holding a giant red hammer.

"I am... fully aware of that Yashima." Mercer replied without looking at her or stopping his chilling pace. "Now will you give me an answer I don't know?"

She looked like she was about to cry when her Ashikabi gave her a hard slap across the face, which horrified Kuu.

"Don't be so worthless, Yashima!" the Ashikabi said.

"I'm sorry master!" she cried. She then turned her head to look at Mercer who was now rounding about and headed her way. She got down on her knees. "I'm sorry Mercer-heika! Please don't kill me!" she cried and begged at the same time.

Mercer stopped pacing when he was in front of her. "I won't kill you. But if all of you fail again..." He bent down so that he was eye level with Yashima. "I will take it out on you." He then stood back up and began pacing again. "Now then, what happened? How did she get away exactly?" To show that he wouldn't tolerate another worthless response, he formed his claws on his arms, making everyone except Karasuba even more frightened.

"Well, she's a Single Number..." Another Sekirei said fearfully.

"So she is..." Mercer replied. "She is an unwinged Single Number..." He turned his course and he and Karasuba walked away from them until they were ten feet in front of them. He looked away from them for a moment, and then quickly spun around to glare at them. Venom dripped from his voice. "And there are twenty of you. I find it very hard to believe that an unwinged Sekirei, Single Number or not, can outdo almost two dozen winged Sekirei who are trying to do the same thing."

Kuu was ready to faint from fright.

"Yara, it's just ridiculous." Karasuba playfully said. She leaned over. Much to Kuu's surprise, the Black Queen let herself fall right onto the spikes of Mercer's clawed arm. She didn't seem at all effected by the black thorns digging into and even breaking her skin.

"Exactly," Mercer replied while keeping his glare on the row of followers. "So here's the new status quo; go divide yourselves up into groups and find her right now. Any group who loses her, don't bother coming back. And as for the Ashikabi... Do. Not. Wing. Her. If you do, I'll throw you out to the Hunters, and they will tear you to shreds and skull fuck you. And not in that order. Now get out."

The group couldn't get out fast enough. They shoved at each other to get out of the door. After they all left, only Mercer and what used to be MBI's Discipline Squad were still in the room. Mercer walked over to his Victorian era chair and sank into it. He had since coated it with hardened Blacklight.

"Go make sure they don't fuck it all up again." He said to the three Sekirei.

"Okay, we're on it!" Benitsubasa quickly said with a nervous smile. She grabbed Haihane by the shoulder and ran off.

Karasuba threw herself into her King's lab, smiling at him. He didn't look at her, he just looked off into space with his faint scowl. She looked like she was about to do something suggestive when they both heard a creaking sound. They looked over and saw an almost catatonic Kusano standing beside the open door to the room Mercer had gently put her in.

"Sorry about how much of that you saw," Mercer said. "People are just so unreliable nowadays."

XXXXXX

The two of them were alone walking through the streets of Mercer's territory. The God King had asked her if she would be willing to help him in a little experiment. Kuu instantly said yes. She didn't want to make him anymore frustrated than he already was and give him a reason to hurt her. When they first set out to wherever they were going, she didn't want to be near him at all. But now she almost clung to him; while they were walking to their destination, they had encountered several Infected, and they naturally made Kuu their target since Mercer was for too powerful. However, before they could even get near their meal, Mercer tore them to shreds. Kuu had watched the man she feared the most kill twenty walking corpses to protect her. Eventually, she became more afraid of the Infected than of Mercer, so she now tried to stay as close to him as possible. He felt awkward about her being that close to him, but he didn't say anything. He even told her it was alright to call him Alex.

"Why are you doing whatever it is your doing, Alex?"

"Because this world needs to be given its second chance before the human race destroys it." He answered in his usual voice.

"Why would they destroy it?" Kuu asked. She thought about Minato. She couldn't see why Mercer believed that people like her Ashikabi would destroy everything.

"Several reasons. But one of them I always think of is how all humans are willing to betray each other to get what they want; how they are so ready to destroy whatever has what they desire to get it."

"But not all people are like that. Some of them are caring and will protect the ones they love." Kuu said.

"Which can also result in violence. They're all stagnant." He looked over and stopped walking. "Ah, here we are."

Kuu followed him to a patch of earth with a small plant sprouting out of the ground. She stood over it and Mercer kneeled down on the other side of it and formed his claws.

"Here's what I want you to do," Mercer said to her in a voice that wasn't demanding or stern in any way. "When I make a small drop of liquid fall off my talon, I want you to make this plant grow to great heights at the exact moment the drop hits it. Okay?"

"Okay." Kuu was surprised that was all he wanted. He lifted his right claw over the small plant and made a small drop of very potent Blacklight to fall from the tip of one. Kuu got ready to make the plant grow with amazing speed, and did just so right when the black liquid made contact with it.

Almost instantly, the small plant grew to be a two hundred foot long vine that was as thick as a car. Mercer looked at it with a very satisfied face. He then raised his right claw and got ready to slash, but he froze and turned to Kuu.

"Could you please take a few... dozen steps back? I'm not exactly sure what will happen." Seeing the uncertainty in his face, Kuu did as she was asked. She looked from a safe distance as Mercer raised his claw once again. He slashed at the thick vine, and at first nothing happened. He lowered his stance to observe the spot he had cut into, and suddenly a geyser of Blacklight flooded out of it and showered him.

"Perfect." Mercer said to himself, very satisfied that he now had the Blacklight he needed to infect the entire city.

XXXXXX

A/N: Heika is a Japanese honorific that is used to address the highest of royalty.


	9. The Ice Queen Cometh

Kuu stood back a good distance watching Mercer revel in his Blacklight bath. She couldn't understand why he was so happy to be covered with slime. Suddenly, she heard a very strange growling noise from behind her. She turned around, and once again froze with fear. Down the street was one of the Evolved Alex had told her about. From what he described, it was a Hunter, and it began to charge at her. She wanted to run but her legs wouldn't obey. She wanted to scream, but her voice was nonexistent. As the Hunter closed in on her, she still couldn't move when a shadow casted itself on her from above. She looked up and saw Alex going forward in the air with his blade raised above his head. As he began to go towards the ground, he forced his body forward into doing a flip, giving him more momentum as he sailed towards the charging Hunter, and then he used his blade to slice the Evolved into two equal halves. He looked back at Kuu who was now staring at him with tears saturating in her eyes.

"Are you alright?" he asked the youngest Sekirei. She looked like she had just been emotionally scarred for life.

"Thank you Alex." She weeped. "Thank you for not letting it kill me."

"I'm not going to send a child to her grave." He may have been planning to recreate the city, and then the world, but he was not so monstrous that he would sit back and watch an Evolved tear apart a little girl. However he had no qualms over fully grown people getting torn apart by his pets.

"Plus it could have been a whole lot worse," he added.

"How could it get worse?" she trembled.

Before he could answer, a loud gurgling roar filled the air and echoed. Mercer instantly recognized it and became incredibly frustrated. He had killed that thing twice in Manhattan; how many times until it finally died? And how the hell did it even get here?

"It just got worse." He ran over to Kuu and formed his claws on his left arm and kept his blade on the right. He thought about telling her to run, but then she would be on her own in a heavily infected area; she wouldn't last three minutes. "Get behind me and stay behind me. Whatever you do, don't draw any of his attention." He rapidly looked around in several directions, trying to locate his enemy.

"Who are we looking for?" Kuu fearfully grabbed onto Mercer's left leg. He looked down at her with awkward confusion, but he let it go when he saw that she had her face full of tears pressed up against his biomass jeans. He looked up again and saw his target, the Supreme Hunter, running towards them.

"Kuu, you need to let go of me if you want to survive." She looked up at him with tears, but did as she was told. She took a few steps behind him, and watched as he got his blade and claws ready to rip apart his opponent.

XXXXXX

"We can't just sit here and do nothing!" Homura argued with Miya as the others looked on. Uzume had tears in her eyes because of their telling her everything about Mercer. "That murderous freak will cut her to ribbons without a second thought!"

"Homura, Mercer has shown all of us that if he is directly attacked, he'll easily turn the tables." Miya said back in an emotionless voice.

"So what, we're just going to sit here and wait for him to have his fun and then finish her off?"

"I don't think he's going to hurt her," Miya honestly replied. "He took the time to make a plan to lure me away from her so he could get to her. If he wanted to kill her..."

"He would have just done it." Minato said with a suddenly small feeling of hope. "Does he actually expect you to sell out Kazehana to him?" he asked his landlady.

"I can never tell what goes through his sick mind," she answered. "But I do know that whatever he's doing, it's not without reason."

"That's true." Minato said. He lifted himself up from where he was sitting and made his way upstairs. He figured that Tsukiumi would want him to warmly hold her and again assure her that he didn't care at all about her being infected.

"Tsukiumi?" he said as he knocked on the door. He didn't get an answer, so he tried calling her name again. He still didn't get an answer. He then began to worry that she had left to once again seek out Mercer. He was relieved to see her sitting on the edge of her bed, looking at her hands for some reason. He walked over and sat next to her.

"Are you alright?"

"Minato..." Tsukiumi put down her arms and looked over to her husband. "Do you think I should ever... use the weapons Mercer has forced into me?"

XXXXXX

Alex stood in the middle of the road. Kuu was several feet away from him and had just watched him tear apart his enemy, and then consume it. He felt... amazing. So much raw power coursed through him. He then got an idea.

"If Greene can create something like that..." He had consumed Greene back in Manhattan, so he could do everything she did, he just never actually did it. He looked over to the pool of Blacklight, and walked over to it. Kuu quickly ran up to him as he kneeled down next to the large black puddle, which she carefully kept her distance from. He put his claws into the Blacklight.

"What are you doing Alex?" She asked looking at his claws.

"Something beautiful." He replied in a whisper.

XXXXXX

Mikogami was napping in his own apartment. He was awoken by a soft voice.

"Hello Master."

Mikogami opened his eyes. He looked in the direction the voice came from and right next to his bed he saw...

"Akitsu?" he said in disbelief.

Standing before him was the Broken Sekirei. She still had her mourning eyes and auburn hair and the symbol on her forehead. The difference about her was that she still had the same outfit, but it now had nothing but black colors. Even the chain wrapping around her neck and going in between her large breasts was nightmarishly dark.

Mikogami then remembered what had happened what seemed like a lifetime ago, and let out a chuckle. "Nice try Mercer."

"Nice try what?"

Mikogami looked the other way and saw Mercer standing at the far side of the room. He then began walking towards the two. Mikogami altered his vision from Akitsu to Mercer rapidly with wide eyes.

"Wha-wha... what the..."He found it extremely hard to form words. "Mercer... is that really Akitsu?"

"Yes... and no." Mercer said walking up to Akitsu, who wrapped herself around his arm. "While it's not the actual Akitsu, but a mass of Blacklight, she's everything Akitsu was. Her feelings, her wants. I put her consciousness into the biomass."

"So basically..." Mikogami was finally beginning to understand. "She's just like you now."

"Correct."

"So does that mean I can keep her since she was mine before?" Mikogami asked excitedly.

"Even if that was the reason he brought me back, I would sooner ask Alex-sama to consume me again than go back to you." Akitsu told him in her unattached voice.

Mikogami looked at her with his mouth agape. "W... what? Why?"

"Because you let me die that night. You could have sent Mutsu to help me, but your fear of losing both of your 'toys' led me straight to my death. Well I am no longer yours Mikogami." She said his name with a hint of hatred. "Alex-sama brought me back to be his queen, and I happily said yes."

"Another queen?" Mikogami said to Mercer. "How many do you need?"

"Just do what I tell you." Mercer answered. He and Akitsu then left the Ashikabi alone after Mercer smashed out half the wall with a flick of his wrist.

XXXXXX

"So now all we need is one of the nukes inside the Tower." Mercer was standing atop a roof inside his turf with the Discipline Squad and Akitsu. He had just told them the rest of his plan. The Failsafes file Benitsubasa had given him a while ago contained three plans, and one involved two small nuclear missiles.

"Are you sure this will work?" Haihane asked.

"Of course it will!" Benitsubasa confidently shouted.

"I have no doubts at all in my King's plan." Akitsu said emotionlessly.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Karasuba said with a wild smile.


	10. Mercer's Plan Revealed

The alarms inside MBI Tower were blaring, saying that Mercer was inside the Tower. Good. That was exactly what he wanted. While he could have easily gotten to the higher levels, he slowly made his way up floor by floor. Every turn there were soldiers who shot at him and were then torn to pieces.

XXXXXX

"Why is he killing everyone on every level?" Minaka asked Takami as they watched Mercer's rampage on security monitors.

"To prove a point," Takami answered as she pulled out a cigarette. "He's too powerful now."

"Well where's the Discipline Squad?" Minaka frantically asked.

"Nobody has any idea."

"Well I'm leaving." The Director made his way for the roof. "Aren't you going to join me?"

"No. He's after you."

Minaka then ran off as fast as he could. About ten minutes later Mercer had made his way up to the top level and smashed the door to pieces.

"Hello Takami," he said walking towards her. "I see Minaka already made his exit. No matter, he'll be dealt with soon enough."

"What? You mean this wasn't just to get to Minaka?" Takami was surprised that she had come to the wrong conclusion.

"Of course not," he replied flatly and turned around to walk away. "I just needed your attention for awhile."

Takami frantically thought about what he was saying, and once she had a plausible idea, she ran past him and made her way to the underground hangar. When she got there she froze in horror as she realized what Mercer had meant by keeping their attention; one of MBI's nuclear missiles was gone.

"You humans and your toys," Mercer said as he also entered the hangar.

"So that's what your going to do," Takami said looking back at him. "Kill everybody and completely destroy the city."

"Of course not," he said again with a chuckle. "Since you cannot stop me, I'll just tell you. It's as simple as removing the warhead and replacing it with one of my own." He then walked off again.

Takami didn't doubt for a second that one of his hundreds and hundreds of victims knew how to make explosives.

XXXXXX

"It's appears you damned reprobates finally did something right," Mercer said as he put the finishing touches on his Blacklight missile.

"Thank you Mercer-heika," Yashima said nervously.

"Yeah, it wasn't a problem at all!" Benitsubasa said with forced confidence.

Haihane just gave him a nod.

"I wouldn't have allowed them to fail you, Alex-sama," Akitsu said in her detached voice. "I would have gladly killed them first."

"Good girl, my dear Ice Queen," Mercer said.

"Uh, Mercer-heika..." Yashima nervously spoke up. "Don't you think this is a bit... too much?"

Mercer instantly stopped what he was doing and turned at her and gave her a murderous glare. She was about to scream that she was sorry when Akitsu suddenly appeared in front of her.

The Ice Queen held up her right hand so that it was level with her eyes, and she formed her own claws. They were exactly like her King's except for one detail; their talons were the exact same shape, size, and length, but while Mercer's looked silver and almost metallic, Akitsu's were jagged icicles that were whiter than fresh snow.

Yashima's eyes saturated with tears as she stared at the icy talons. She felt immense relief when Mercer told his Queen to stand down and she did just that. Mercer then walked right up to Yashima and glared down at her in silence. After a full minute Mercer finally broke his gaze and turned away with Akitsu in tow.

"Junichi, control your Sekirei," he called back to them.

Yashima then got slapped very hard across the face by her abusive Ashikabi. The impact was enough to get her on the ground.

"Why do you make it all worse?" he demanded as he stomped on her with each word. Her cries and apologies fell on deaf ears.

XXXXXX

Everyone in Maison Izumo watched in silence as they watched the newsreel of Mercer's onslaught on the Tower.

"So many innocent people... and he doesn't care at all," Minato said without emotion. The horror he was witnessing made it impossible for him to feel anything.

"He did this just to show off," Matsu stated

"Maybe his bragging is true. Maybe he really can't be stopped," Homura said.

Miya was about to say that nobody is invincible, but a frantic knocking at the front door stopped her. She went to answer it and was greeted with a Sekirei who had obviously gone through an incredible amount of pain.

"Are you one of the few remaining unwinged Sekirei?" Miya asked the raggedly clothed girl.

"No I have an Ashikabi. I'm Sekirei Number Eighty-four, Yashima.

"Why aren't you with him then?"

"Because he's the one who did this." She gestured to her abused body. "And he works for Mercer."

"Oh my. Come in, come in."

After she was settled, the visiting Sekirei had the attention of all the boarders. She knew what they were all wondering and she began to tell them everything.

XXXXXX

"Wait," Homura interrupted her. "He... recreated Akitsu?"

She nodded. "He put her consciousness into a mass of Blacklight."

"And what exactly is Blacklight?" Minato asked.

"It's what Mercer is literally made of. And now he basically has complete obedience from us."

"Why?" Musubi cocked her head to the side.

"Because if we don't do exactly what he says or if we fail him, he'll consume us and make Blacklight copies that do everything he says without hesitation."

"Oh my God." Uzume was crying.

"I know." Tears began to fill Yashima's eyes as well. "The only reason he doesn't do it to all of us right now is because he enjoys watching us frantically and desperately carry out his orders with the fear of feeling his wrath if we mess up at all."

Miya then sat down next to the traumatized Sekirei and placed her hand gently on Yashima's shoulders. "I truly do feel sympathy for you, but right now you have to tell me what that monster is planning."

"He's going to recreate the world. And he is going to start right here. That rampage on the Tower was just a distraction so we could steal a missile. He just finished replacing the warhead with some kind of Blacklight spreader before ordering my Ashikabi to 'control' me. After that, I just couldn't live with myself being a part of his plans, so I ran to the one place he hasn't yet conquered after being at it, here. Basically, from what little he told us while ranting and basking, it'll cover the entire city with his virus."

"And infect everybody," Tsukiumi finished for her. The Water Sekirei looked down at her hands. Minato then put an arm around her shoulders and brought her into a tight embrace.

"Thank you Yashima. You did a very brave thing coming here." Miya said to her in a very assuring voice. "But right now, you need to go back to his territory for the time being. If he notices you're gone, he'll come looking for you."

Yashima jolted up. "That would be **bad**!" She then ran for the door but stopped as she opened it. She turned around to look at the group of people who had survived Mercer several times. "Can you promise me something? Will you please stop him?" She didn't wait to see their answer and walked out of the Inn.

They all looked at each other, and silently promised to stop the God King, but then they noticed that it was _too_ silent; Uzume's sobs were nonexistent. They all looked over to where she had been and found the spot empty. It didn't take long for them to figure out that she had gone to get Kuu back.

XXXXXX

Yashima was walking towards the opening in the wall that surrounded the Inn, worrying herself sick that Mercer or one of his Queens would find her here... and kill her where she stood. But she began to slowly relax as she thought about how important that missile was to Mercer; he wouldn't let anyone but his Queens and himself guard it.

Just as she walked through the wall's opening, someone instantly shot out their arm and grasped her tightly around the neck.


	11. Kuu's Choice

Mercer was putting the final coordinates and some extra security in the control panel for his missile. In a matter of no more than forty hours would his plan finally reach phase two; the beginning of this world's end and the birth of the new one. He, his Ice Queen, and Kuu were standing on a random, but well protected, rooftop of a skyscraper in the heart of his turf. The majority of his other followers were out in a more secure section of Hell guarding the actual weapon. Akitsu was standing to his right and he felt Kuu's arms around his left leg, and he didn't care much since she would have a part in his new world; plus she now had full blown Stockholm Syndrome and saw Mercer and Akitsu as surrogate parents. He wasn't surprised; he figured it would happen sooner rather than later since she was the only one inside his territory he didn't threaten or randomly murder and had saved her from being eaten alive by rogue Evolved on several occasions.

"Just picture it," Mercer said to both of them as he continued putting layer upon layer of encryptions in the system. "A brave, adaptable, strong new world, free of disease and war."

"It makes me think of the phrase 'just like a perfect paradise'," Akitsu said in her detached tone.

"It sounds incredible Alex-chan," Kuu added with excitement.

He continued further securing his access codes when Akitsu stepped closer to him so that she could whisper in his ear.

"She's coming."

He stopped typing in slight confusion, thinking about which 'she' Akitsu was talking about. That irrepressible Wind Manipulator? His tsundere Water Queen? The Death Goddess?

"Who?" he asked.

"The Veil user."

"Oh," he said with a smug grin. "Follow me." He gently and slowly pushed Kuu away from him so that she would let him go. He then turned on his heels and walked towards the ledge, and then allowed himself to walk over it and fall to the streets below. Akitsu picked Kuu up in a motherly way and did what Mercer requested of her. They gracefully landed right next to him.

"Get directly behind me."

"Understood Alex-sama," Akitsu said as she did just that with Kuu still being protectively held in her arms.

"Whatever she does, whatever she says, don't make a single noise." He said that mostly to Kuu since Akitsu rarely made a single sound at all.

They waited for about twenty seconds and sure enough, Uzume came from above wearing her white lines of razor sharp cloth and landed about ten feet in front of them (or from her perspective, just Mercer since her anger blinded her from noticing the two women behind him.)

"Where. Is. Kuu?" She screamed her demand. Her face had a look of unbridled fury.

"Safe... for now," he told her with a mocking smile.

"That's not what I asked Alex." She became even more aggravated.

He smirked at her, crossed his arms, and took two big steps to his left to reveal to her the two Sekirei behind him.

"Kuu!" Uzume loudly said with relief and happiness. Kuu looked at her but didn't say anything. Akitsu held the Green Girl closer to her, not wanting to risk losing her and angering her King and husband. Uzume saw the Ice Queen's actions and prepared to attack her, but then relaxed her body realizing that if she did that, there was the possibility that she could harm Kuu along with Mercer's third Queen. "Let her go," she ordered.

Akitsu didn't oblige. "I will sooner impale you with a thousand icicle javelins than disappoint Alex-sama." The air around them all grew colder. Akitsu's eyes slightly narrowed as she prepared to make her threat become reality, but she felt Mercer's hand come to rest on her left shoulder and instantly stopped her attack's preparation.

"It's alright Akitsu. Put Kuu down." She knelt down and let Kuu step out of her arms and onto the asphalt. Mercer looked at Uzume. "She's free to leave whenever she wants."

"How do I know you'll really just let her walk away?" Uzume didn't trust a single syllable he said.

He wrapped his right arm around Akitsu's waist, and jumped backwards so that the two of them were the same exact distance away from Kuu as Uzume was. "It seems she has grown rather... fond of me and Akitsu, so why don't we let her chose?"

The youngest Sekirei there was looked at the members of both of her families. Alex and Akitsu stood straight up not moving a single muscle. Alex had his normal arms crossed over his chest and wore his faint, almost bored scowl, and Akitsu had her arms at her sides and her emotionless face gave nothing away. She turned her head and looked at Uzume who was now wearing a joyous smile with saturated tears in her eyes. She was down on one knee and her arms were spread out in front of her as if she was waiting for Kuu to come running at her and throw herself into the Veiled Sekirei for an embrace.

"Come on Kuu," she happily cried. "We can go home, back to all our friends. Back to Miya and Minato." She specifically mentioned the two of them since they were the ones Kuu had the most affection for.

Kuu found herself in a stalemate as she looked again and again at her two choices. With Uzume, she could go back to the ones she oh so much loved being around as her Ashikabi's other Sekirei constantly did something to anger Miya who would give them a somewhat painful whack on the head. She glanced at the two biomasses. Alex had protected her from all sorts of monsters, never gotten angry with her like he did with everyone else save Akitsu, and had told her that his ingenious plot wouldn't have gone so quickly if it weren't for her. He somehow knew exactly how to treat her, it was like he had raised another little girl earlier in his life.

"How can you actually be thinking about this?" Uzume asked as tears slid down her face. "He's pure evil!"

"I resent that," Mercer said to her. "I like to think of myself as necessary punishment."

"Alex-chan..." Kuu looked over to the man who had protected her from things that belonged in nightmares. "What do I do?"

"I can't answer that Kuu," he replied. "It's your choice and yours alone."

Kuu once again looked at both of her choices, and made her decision


	12. You Have Lost

Kuu put herself back into Akitsu's gentle arms while Mercer smirked at the distraught Uzume.

"I guess that settles that," he said to her. "Since this has been a very trying day for you... and I'm going to win, I'll let you walk away just this once."

Uzume's sorrow was quickly replaced with unchained rage. "I don't know what you did to Kuu, but I'm going to make you pay for it!"

"Okay, first off I didn't do anything to her. And secondly..." He raised his right arm in the air and snapped his fingers. The sound was abnormally loud, it echoed across the streets. For ten seconds the four of them stood in a deafening silence, and then all of Mercer's followers appeared from the rooftops and jumped down about fifteen feet behind him, Akitsu and Kuu. "I don't think you'll be doing anything except turning around and running away of you wish to continue breathing."

He turned around and began walking away from her. He made it four steps, and then he felt something go through his stomach. He stopped moving and looked down to see a white spear going completely through him. He looked closer and saw that it was... cloth. He put his hands up gesturing for his followers to stay still.

"You are more stupid than I thought Uzume." He flexed his shoulders back, and the Veil Sekirei soared away from him as did her spear. She slammed into a wall and fell to the ground in intense pain. He formed his claws on both arms and raised one in the air, ready to impale her with several spikes when a jet of water slammed into him, causing him to stagger sideways a few steps. He looked over and saw that Tsukiumi was now standing over the downed Uzume.

"So you finally came to stand by my side," he said to the Water Sekirei with a smirk.

"No, I came here to put an end to your madness!" she yelled at him with righteous fury.

"Don't leave me out of this," Uzume said as she picked herself up.

"So the two of you against me and..." He turned and looked at the horde of his followers. "Akitsu."

The Ice Queen carefully put down Kuu and stepped forward to her King's side as he turned back to look at the two intruders.

"Mercer is mine," Uzume instantly said, much to the Water Sekirei's displeasure.

"Very well. The monster's concubine is fine with me."

"If I am a concubine..." Akitsu started. "Then why am I by his side while you stand against him?"

Before she could respond Uzume sent out a line of her veil at Mercer and had it wrap around his right arm. He jerked his ensnared limb back and made Uzume come flying towards him. He grabbed her by the neck and threw her a very good distance.

"Take care of her," he said to Akitsu. He then turned to the mass of Sekirei. "Go make sure nothing else happens and that nobody goes near the missile." He leapt off to meet with his prey. The entire horde, even his Black Queen, did as he commanded and left Tsukiumi alone with Akitsu.

The Ice Queen made her icy claws form on her arms. "You do of course realize that you cannot hope to even scratch me."

"I'll do far more than merely scratch you!" She made an orb of water form in her hand and she sent it flying towards the clawed freak. Akitsu simply used her natural ability to make the orb freeze solid and it fell and shattered at her feet.

"How can you possibly hope to win if you refuse to use Alex-sama's gift?"

"Gift? GIFT?! Do you not mean curse?"

"If it is a curse, then why am I vastly more dangerous and powerful than you?" She swung her clawed arm across the space in front of her and sent razor sharp icicles at Tsukiumi.

XXXXXX

"You are in my world now Veiled One." Uzume heard Mercer's voice call out to her from somewhere close in the wasteland as she ran from him by sprinting in any random direction but stopped to catch her breath and tried to come up with a plan. She knew that taking him on in a straight up fight was suicide. At that moment her instincts screamed for her to move and run. As she did, Mercer crashed through the wall she had pressed herself against.

"I will fold your body like paper!" Mercer laughed as he effortlessly caught up to her and smashed her head into the ground. With his claws having a grip on her cranium, he picked her up and tossed through the wall he had just smashed through, thus creating another gaping hole. With all the desecration of the area they wound in the middle of an abandoned road. Uzume struggled to pick herself up as Mercer stood a few yards away from her fanning out his claws and cracking his neck. "You know... maybe I won't kill you, you're too much fun."

"Alex... what happened to you? Last time we met I thought you were a good and caring person... but now you're... a genocidal madman!"

"Your opinion of me couldn't be more inaccurate." He waited for her to hoist herself up, and he ran up to her and began to slash again and again. Uzume prayed that her speed wouldn't fail her.

XXXXXX

"Can you please just accept the fact that even if I weren't as almost powerful as Alex-sama, you still would stand no chance against me."

Akitsu walked with boredom while Tsukiumi struggled to walk backwards as she sent attack after attack to the Ice Queen, who would either make it freeze solid or deflect it away with a wave of her icicle claws.

"I will never admit that anyone is stronger than me!" Tsukiumi shouted back at her sending another jet of water which was frozen solid within a second. "I will become the strongest and I will tear your demented leader to pieces!"

"Perhaps I will stop wasting my time toying with you and simply rid us of you," Akitsu replied sending a brigade of icicles flying towards Tsukiumi. The Water Sekirei just barely avoided being impaled by summoning a thick wall of water in front of her to act like a shield. "Then again, perhaps you could provide me with an actual challenge if I beat you hard enough to finally submit and use the powers Alex-sama bestowed upon you..."

XXXXXX

Mercer and Uzume's brawl had led them to in front of the massive vine that Kuu had made grow instantly and was filled the the very brim with Blacklight. Needless to say, Mercer was winning by a landslide. He had beaten Uzume to the point where she was only able to move by crawling on her hands and knees, and Mercer just walked beside her, kicking her every so often and further breaking her. He knew that all of his followers save Akitsu and one other were watching by now since he and the Veil Sekirei had smashed their way through half of Hell. Right now most of them watched from a safe distance from the roofs but Karasuba and Kuu were watching him entertain himself with Uzume right next to them.

"It seems I have taken away both your sense of self preservation..." Mercer lifted his right leg up, and brought his foot down hard on Uzume's back. "... And your will to fight."

"What are you going to do?" Uzume was barely able to speak. "Kill me?"

"Alas, no. And because of one reason... you have lost..."

Uzume mustered up what little strength and energy she had left to lift her head up to look at Kuu who was holding onto Karasuba as if the Black Queen was her mother. At that sight Uzume realized that Mercer wasn't talking about just their duel. He was referring to so much more... and he was right. She had lost it all and failed to get any of it back.

"So I'm going to let you have something that'll suffice for your torment. I have been waiting a long time to use this." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a large syringe that was full of Blacklight. He got down on one knee next to Uzume so that they both were looking at Kuu and Karasuba. "Kuu, will you please come over here?"

Kuu looked up to Karasuba who looked down at her with a small smile and ran her right hand through the young girl's hair, silently telling her everything was going to be alright. Reassured, Kuu let go of the Black Queen and walked over so that she was about two feet in front of Mercer and Uzume who looked at her with a tear of pain and blood seeping out of her mouth.

"Make me proud Kusano..." Mercer said as he handed her the needle full of the deadly virus. She took it in both her hands and looked at it, and then she brought her vision back at Mercer with a confused expression. Seeing that she wasn't following him, Mercer formed his claws on his right arm and grasped the top of Uzume's head so that talons went down her face right next to both of her eyes. Mercer then whispered what he wanted Kuu to do loud enough so that both she and the Veiled One could clearly hear him.

"Make her one of us..."


	13. A Last Request

"This is bad, very bad," Minato said. He, Homura, Musubi and Matsu were all in the latter's room looking at monitors that showed them footage of Uzume, and then Tsukiumi traveling quickly across the rooftops straight for Hell. "We have to go find them before Mercer does."

"Actually, I've got that covered," Matsu told him with a confident smile. "An old friend of mine was willing to go and get them, all of them, once I mess up Mercer's little plot."

"Yes but we both know that she won't last long against him." They all turned around to see Miya standing there. "So Matsu, I'm going to take part in this as well."

The Wisdom Sekirei's eyes widened to three times their normal size. "Miya... But... but you said..."

The Death Goddess shook her head. "If I sit here and do nothing while that monster destroys everything, my promise to Takehito will have been for nothing. I'll take care of Mercer." She started to walk out, but stopped dead in her tracks just as she was pushing the disguised door open. "Just in case the worst happens, I want all of you to get out of the city as soon as you've dealt with his weapon."

XXXXXX

Kuu couldn't decide what to do with the syringe. She didn't want to upset Alex, but she also didn't want to force the Blacklight into her dear friend**.**

Mercer saw her uncertainty. "It's possible that without Blacklight's ability to heal the host instantly, she'll most likely meet her demise here."

That statement did have an impact on her, but she still couldn't decide what to do. As she stood there, a strong wind made the needle fly out of her hands and shatter on the ground. Mercer lifted himself up into a standing position.

"Making a child take away the life of one of her closest friends? You really are inhuman." Mercer turned his gaze to the bane of his vision. There was Kazehana standing there and lazily smiling at him.

"I have had enough of you interfering and delaying me every fucking step of the way." He tried to keep a calm air but his voice sounded of repressed fury and dripped venom. "Always the fucking deus ex machina." He formed his blade and covered his left arm with his claws. "But this time I won't toy with you. This time... this time... you won't be leaving."

Before he could even make the first strike, the ground beneath them shook. Mercer darted his head around trying to see what was going on. The sound of a rocket made him lift up his head to see his missile flying through the air. This didn't please him at all. Only he knew the launch code, and with all the encryptions he had installed the only person who could possibly access the system had no idea what he was up to. He instantly forgot about Kazehana and leapt off towards the rocket's controls. All of his followers innately followed him, leaving Kuu, Uzume, and Kazehana alone. The latter walked over and carefully helped the Veiled Sekirei reach a strained standing position.

"How did you know we were here?"

"An old friend of mine said you and Kuu were in trouble." Kazehana responded with a completely relaxed air. "Now come on. We don't want to be around when Mercer finds out we ruined everything for him."

XXXXXX

Mercer furiously typed commands in the computer telling the missile to change course. From what the data was telling him, his weapon was headed right for the bottom of the sea, and the warhead was now deactivated. His anger seethed out of him as he finally stopped and looked up to see the rocket vanish beneath the water. The silence that followed made a graveyard sound like a rave.

"Are... are you okay Mercer?" one of his followers asked.

"The only ones who knew about this plan was us," Mercer said with his back turned to all of them. "None of you know the codes to activate it, and the only person alive who could have even hoped to hack into the system should not have had a single clue as to what was going to happen until it was too late... unless one of you told her. So rather than questioning all of you..."

Scores of tendrils shot out of him and snaked around every single one of his followers. He ignored their screams of pain and begging for mercy. He tuned out every single noise they made until he was almost finished consuming all of them. He turned to look at who was left and saw only Karasuba. She was smiling at him, as if she was expecting this. She then gave him one request before she became nothing but Mercer's snack.

"Just be sure to take out Miya."

XXXXXX

Yashima was trying to keep up with Junichi as he held her hand in an extremely tight grip. She had literally cried with relief when she saw that it was her Ashikabi who had grabbed her outside of the Inn.

"I don't know what you're doing here and I don't care." He had said. "But we're leaving. I'm sick of taking orders from that hooded narcissist."

So now they found themselves running as fast as they could through Mercer's territory, heading straight for the nearest bridge; trying this outside of his turf would mean getting stopped by MBI no matter what, but Mercer could only be in one place, so they had an actual chance of escaping through his land. Their luck seemed to be filled to the brim when they finally spotted a bridge and nobody around it.

"Heh, looks like I win today Mercer," Junichi said with a smug grin.

"Oh really?" As if the Devil's name had been spoken, Mercer fell from above and landed in front of them, creating a small crater in the process. Both of them noticed that there was something different about Mercer. His eyes glowed with a red aura, and he seemed to be literally radiating power. When he spoke it sounded like ten of him were talking in perfect unison. "I would have to disagree with you. And as for you..." He turned his demonic eyes towards Yashima, who was almost sobbing with fear. "Did you really think you could get away with betraying me? I told you that if things went wrong, I would take it out on you. And things have gone very, very... very wrong..."

XXXXXX

Mercer walked away from the bridge. All of his followers were now gone except Akitsu. He didn't care. Consuming all the Sekirei who had followed his every order had made him nearly invincible. Now he only needed to find the Death Goddess to become truly omnipotent, but first he had to track down the Sekirei who had delayed the birth of Mercer's new world.

"I am going to make you suffer a pain that will leave you begging for your eternal reward, Matsu... And I'll make your pathetic Ashikabi watch as I murder you and all his other Sekirei before I finish him off..."


	14. The Meeting Of The Metas

He landed in front of Maison Izumo. He just stood there and stared at the large house for a minute, as if he was expecting it to come to life and walk away. After growing bored and realizing nothing would happen if he just stood there, Mercer dug his Claws into an empty car next to him and effortlessly threw it right through one of the Inn's walls. Again he didn't receive a reaction. He cracked his neck a few times and prepared to completely destroy his enemies' home when he heard someone land next to him. He looked over.

"Ah. There you are Akitsu."

"Yes, the Water Sekirei put up a very formidable fight, but naturally she failed to best me." Her voice was as detached as it had always been.

"Sekirei. Powerful, but unadaptable. The new world you and I shall create will adapt and overcome every single obstacle thrown at it."

"It is a vision beyond perfect Master."

He froze and looked at her for a moment that felt like years. "Of course it is. And I shall usher it in all on my own."

"On your own? But what about me, Master?"

"Easy. You're not on my side."

Before she could react, Mercer lunged at her and buried his Claws into her stomach. She let out a gasp full of pain. And just as Mercer expected, Akitsu changed back into her true form; Tsukiumi.

"You put on a good act. But you made one mistake. Akitsu didn't call me Master." He tore his weaponized hands out of her and watched her fall to the ground while putting her hands over her massive wound. "I don't know how you bested her, nor do I care." He reached down and wrapped his hand around her neck. He lifted her up into the air. "It's a shame really. Nobody to share this glory with. Oh well. Kill or be killed."

Before he could do any further damage to her, Mercer literally exploded. In an instant he became a splash of black ooze that flew in all directions. Tsukiumi fell to the ground and noticed that the pain that had consumed her not a moment ago was already fading. A second later, she felt a hand lightly touch her shoulder and looked up to see Miya. The lavender-haired woman was dressed in an outfit almost identical to Karasuba's and her eyes seemed to be of a far deeper purple than before. In her right hand was a real sword.

"Are you alright Tsukiumi? Can you walk?" she asked kneeling down next to the Water Sekirei.

"Yes landlady-dono," she replied while picking herself up. "How did you...?"

"That would take far too long to explain." She cut Tsukiumi off. "We need to move. I am positive that I've only managed to slow him down and royally anger him."

As the two of them leapt off to meet with Minato and the rest of his Sekirei, neither noticed that the black ooze all around started to slide towards each other, and they slowly built up on one another until they were all together again and Mercer was whole once more.

"Is that all you've got, Death Goddess?" He also leapt into the air knowing he would reach the thorns in his side before the two women could.

XXXXXX

"I can't believe this is all going so perfectly," Minato said. He and his Sekirei were now met up with Kazehana, Kusano, and Uzume. The entire group was allowing themselves a few prescious seconds of leisure and rest before they would continue sprinting through Mercer's half of the city towards the rail bridge. Minato wished that they could afford to wait for Tsukiumi and Miya, but nobody knew where they were or even if they were still alive.

"How could it not?" Matsu said with a confident smirk. "Naturally Mercer would figure out that it was I who ruined his plan and would go back to the Inn looking for me. It's one of the very rare instances where he's actually predictable."

"Predictable, but not slow," Homura said through his black mask. "It's only a matter of time before he catches onto our trail."

"You're not as dull as I initially anticipated." Like all the other times he had been mentioned, Mercer appeared not twenty feet away from them. "If you just step aside and give me the red-head, I probably won't kill you."

Matsu lost all the color in her face. Homura stood his ground, as did Kazehana and Musubi.

Mercer only smirked at their bravery. "You don't honestly think you can actually beat me, do you?"

"We can damn well try!" Homura shouted making orbs of pure five surround him.

Mercer raised his right hand so that is was level with his head with his middle finger and thumb pressed together. "Emphasis on the word try." He snapped his fingers.

Out of nowhere a Goliath Evolved crashed flthrough the wall behind the Sekirei, and before any of the three of them could react, it swatted them away like flies with its massive arm. They went flying through the air. After they were gone the powerful Evolved just looked at its master.

"Don't just stare at me you idiot!" Mercer shouted pointing in the direction the trio had disappeared into. "GET THEM!"

The hideous Infected let out a gurgle-esque growl and lumbered off. Mercer then turned his attention back to the remaining thorns in his extremely irritated side; Kusano, Matsu, they pathetic Ashikabi, and the still nearly-crippled Uzume.

"Now then. Back to business." He began walking menacingly towards the Wisdom Sekirei, but before he could close enough to do even one of the many horrific things he had in mind for her, the weak human stepped in between the two of them. He had a look of protectiveness of his face, but Mercer could see it in his eyes that he was afraid. Deathly afraid.

"I won't just stand by and be worthless while you just put everyone you meet through tormenting pain!"

"Right!" Mercer repilied with a laugh. "You can't stop being what you truly are." He was referring to the 'useless' part. He then thrust his right arm forward and tightly wrapped his fingers around the puny mortal's neck just below the point of strangulation. He pulled him in so that their faces were mere inches apart. All the Sekirei looked on frozen horror in the fear that if they advanced even a step, Mercer would tear Minato to shreds.

"You are nothing." Mercer explained to the human. "You are an insect... no I'm wrong. You're lower than that. You are garbage beneath my feet! Your idiocy reached it peak the very instant you thought you could get away from me." He made his free arm get covered in spikes and he formed his ever deadly claws. "And your foolishness will cost you your entire existence..."

Before he could even begin maiming the worthless life-form, Mercer felt something take a hold on his left leg. He didn't know who or what it was, nor did he care at all. He brought up his clawed limb up to his face and, without breaking his venomous gaze on the Ashikabi, swung it down, back-handing whatever was leeching on him. A high-pitched cry filled the air, and Mercer looked over to see whom he had just assaulted. His eyes grew wide. Kusano was weeping on the ground as blood flowed out of the left side of her face, the place where Mercer had struck her. Mercer was shocked with himself. He had never once intended on directly harming a child. He was so absorbed in his turmoil that he dropped Minato. He looked at the crying girl for a long moment, and then brought his hands up and looked at them. One was still normal, and the left one was coated with nightmarish spikes and talons. As he looked at his hands he felt like he was looking into his very soul. He began to feel... slightly disgusted with himself. Was he really what other people constantly said he was, a genocidal maniac bent on destroying everything he touched? He had always seen himself as a chauvinistic antihero.

As Minato watched Mercer just stand there looking at his claws with a lost expression, the North Ashikabi let out a shout of surprise as the murderer exploded. All around the immediate area was drops of black goop. Minato stared with eyes as big as dinner plates, completely at a loss as to what had just happened.

"Monster... truly nothing but a monster..." said a voice to his side. He looked over and was both relieved and surprised to see Tsukiumi and Miya. The latter was dressed in a black outfit he had never before seen her in. Tsukiumi smiled widely as she ran over to the man she incessantly called her husband while Miya sprinted over to Kusano, whose weeping had died down slightly.

"Minato!" Tsukiumi happily cried out, wrapping her arms around him. "You're alive!"

Minato returned her embrace, his eyes saturated with tears. "I'm so happy to see you again Tsukiumi..."

"Are you okay, Ku-chan?" Miya asked with blatant concern as she kneeled down and gently cradled the Green Girl.

"I'm okay Miya-chan." She answered in a small voice. "I just wanted to try to Alex-chan to see what he was doing wasn't good."

Before anymore could be said, the droplets of ooze began to shake and then slide across the area towards each other. All of them were to confused and afraid to move as the ooze slowly built up upon itself, and in a matter of twelve seconds, Mercer was whole once again.

"At long last." Mercer said with a small and wickedly disturbing smile as he eyed Miya. All his inner turmoil from not a minute ago was completely forgotten. "The two of us... the meeting of the Metas."

Miya knew what Mercer wanted to do, and she seized the opportunity by scooping up Kuu and running over to Minato. She placed the young Sekirei into her loving Ashikabi's arms.

"Go." She said to him in a stern voice. "He wants me and only me. Take Ku-chan and Uzume and get as far away from here as possible." Her voice then became very quiet so only Minato could hear her. "I honestly don't know how this duel will end..."

Minato nodded and wordlessly gestured for Tsukiumi to help Uzume. The Water Sekirei completely understood him, and in about a minute Miya and Mercer were all alone.

"Your reign of totalitarian horror ends here." Miya said as she held an iron grip on the sword she was determined to obliterate Mercer permanently with.

"It can't end. It hasn't even begun." He formed his claws on his left hand and his Blade replaced his left arm. He couldn't help but smile as he imagined how powerful he would be after he consumed the Death Goddess. "Let's see how well you can adapt..."


End file.
